News and Updates

  • Ministers not going to ESD Jamboree in Japan Shock

    This was to be the Sun's front page headline today, until a dead donkey story came up. It seems that no member of the UK government is going to the End-of-Days conference on ESD in Japan in November.  Not even the...

  • HEFCE's Sustainable Development Framework – an update of sorts

    You might be wondering what has happened to HEFCE's new Sustainable Development Framework – after all, the national consultation was many months ago.  Well, there is the inevitable passage through the Council's committees – not to mention their having to get a...

  • Ahead of the game in Glasgow – well, up to a point

    There was a small macflurry of  excitement on the Clyde this week as the University of Glasgow announced it was to sell its shares in Big Oil.  This is what the university had to say: Glasgow becomes first UK university to...

  • So, how is Plan A coming on? Not all that well, ...

    Marks and Spencer likes to talk up its green credentials saying that it has no "Plan B".  So, imagine my surprise and disappointment when I went into one of their motorway stores last week, looking for some English apples only to find...

  • Trying to change Section 78 of England's 2002 Education Act

    Section 78 of England's 2002 Education Act begins like this: 78 – General requirements in relation to curriculum (1) The curriculum for a maintained school or maintained nursery school satisfies the requirements of this section if it is a balanced and broadly...

  • Teaching young people – reaching the family?

    I was reminded the other day of a piece that Elsa Lee and I wrote back in 2008: Intergenerational Learning: the case of school to home transfer.   This was written when there was something of a vogue for getting children to...

  • Putting your salary where your values are

    The NUS, which is an organisation that clearly does much good, is fond of citing the following outcomes of their on-going survey * of student attitudes about HE and sustainable development: Around two-thirds of students [say that they] would be willing...

  • Measuring global whatever it is

    This is the latest from Think Global's Chief Executive, promoting a Members’ Lunch and AGM on November 6th (1230 ...) "I’m really pleased to say that our [AGM] guest speakers will be Newman Burdett, Head of Centre for International Comparisons, and...

  • People and Planet accepts a generous offer from EAUC / AUDE

    Those smart folk at People & Planet have agreed with a suggestion from EAUC and AUDE that data should be collected by EAUC / AUDE for use in post-2014 green league tables.  How many micro-seconds did it take P&P to decide to accept, I wonder, and could...

  • Cheap at half the price

    The Plymouth Herald – essential reading, I find – recently reported that the city's University had splashed out a sum not unadjacent to £150k on 7 Chairs.   "Gosh", that's cheap, I thought.  I know professors are poorly paid, but really,...